Tenaris S.A. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire from PAO TMK, a Russian manufacturer of steel pipe, 100% of the shares of its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary IPSCO Tubulars Inc. for $1.2 billion. IPSCO Tubulars is a U.S. domestic producer of seamless and welded OCTG and line pipe products with an annual production capacity of 450,000 metric tons of steel bars, 400,000 metric tons of seamless pipe and 1,000,000 metric tons of welded pipe. The acquisition will add a first U.S. steel bar production facility at Koppel, Pa.; complement Tenaris’ seamless production in Bay City, Texas, with a second facility in Ambridge, Pa.; and bring additional heat-treatment, welding and finishing facilities to better serve customers.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposed penalties of $1,326,367 to Dowa THT America Inc. – a metal heat-treatment company based in Bowling Green, Ohio – after the company exposed employees to atmospheric, thermal, electrical and mechanical hazards as they performed maintenance inside heat-treating furnaces. In addition to the penalties, OSHA placed the company in the Severe Violator Enforcement Program.

Lindberg/MPH shipped a 2192°F (1200°C) crucible furnace to a company in the energy industry. The furnace can be used for a number of applications and processes, including annealing, ashing, carbon firing, ceramic firing, hardening, melting, metallizing, normalizing, sintering, solution treating and stress relieving. Efficient heating-element design, high-temperature graded insulation and advanced temperature controls combine to deliver dependable, long-life heat sources. The furnace has work-chamber dimensions of 12-inch top opening ID x 18-inch chamber depth.

L&L Special Furnace Co. Inc. shipped a dual-chamber heat-treating furnace to a southeastern U.S. manufacturer of various items used in the production of heavy equipment and transportation devices. The box furnace will be used to heat treat the tooling used to manufacture these items. Its top chamber, which has an effective work zone of 16 inches wide x 16 inches high x 32 inches deep, is used to harden tool steels. Its bottom chamber, which has an effective work zone of 14 inches wide x 14 inches high x 32 inches deep, is used for tempering, stress relief and preheating.

OSR Inc., a manufacturer of automotive fasteners, plans to increase its manufacturing production in Columbus, Ind. The company, a joint venture between Japan’s Owari Precise Products Co. and Columbus-based Rightway Fasteners Inc., will invest $7 million to construct and equip a new 82,395-square-foot manufacturing facility. OSR plans to add up to 12 new positions and is hiring immediately for positions in heat treatment and IT. Production is scheduled to increase at the beginning of 2020.

Delta H Technologies will invest more than $300,000 in equipment and add 11 new jobs at its facility in Carroll, Ohio. Delta H Technologies manufactures industrial furnaces and heat-treatment ovens for the aerospace industry. The 11 new jobs will double the company’s current workforce. Fairfield County provided a $20,000 Workforce Development Training Grant to help with new-employee training, and JobsOhio provided a $50,000 performance grant toward the purchase of new machinery.

No. 1042 is a 2000°F (1093°C), gas-fired, heavy-duty furnace designed for heat treating.

AFC-Holcroft received multiple orders throughout 2018 for UBQ (universal batch quench) furnaces and companion equipment from Modern Heat Treat, a commercial heat-treating operation in Richland Hills, Texas. The equipment was installed alongside similar equipment already in operation at the facility. Modern Heat Treat benefitted from the modular, flexible UBQ design with the ability to add new equipment incrementally, creating full production cells that utilize existing controls. Individual furnaces can be added to the operation independently, and they can be idled and restarted easily as needed for maintenance service or changes in production.

Modern designing of mechanical components and tools should take under consideration their intrinsic stresses and surface condition.

Paulo will add hot isostatic pressing to its thermal-processing services with the acquisition of a hot isostatic press (HIP) from Quintus Technologies. The press is equipped with Quintus’ proprietary uniform rapid cooling (URC), a feature that improves material properties in additive manufacturing and investment casting. The HIP will be installed in Paulo’s recently expanded Cleveland Division in Willoughby, Ohio, which provides specialized brazing and vacuum heat treatment.